Your Muscles Need Eccentric Training

When I played collegiate football, my bench press max was 400 pounds. The truth is, I didn't need to bench press 400 pounds to be successful on the football field. I was able to bench press this much weight because my training focused heavily on concentric muscle training (force production).

Research has shown that most injuries occur in the transverse plane of motion during eccentric muscle contractions (force reduction). You should be strong when you need to decelerate your actions, come to a sudden stop or land from a jump. Eccentric muscle contraction training will help you develop this type of strength. Traditional training techniques, such as those with weight machines, have focused on the sagittal plane of motion (backward-forward and up-down motions) and concentric
muscle contractions (force production).

Going back to the bench press example, the eccentric contraction part of the exercise would be when you are lowering the weight down to your chest. You should lower the weight at a slower pace in order to strengthen your muscles more during the eccentric phase of the lift. You can take this example and use it with any weight lifting exercise.

Eccentric contractions are able to produce the greatest tension development in your muscles, followed by isometric contractions and, lastly, concentric contractions. Because this is the case, you should dedicate more of your training on eccentric contractions. Doing this will help you prevent injuries such as knee sprains and tears.